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French Wine's Green Revolution

Piece Number Four in the France Field Trip Guide on Jaunted. This one is sort of like a little teaser for a larger article I am pitching about the new generation of environmentally conscious winemakers taking root--so to speak--in Languedoc-Roussillon. I just talk about a couple of them in this article, but in the larger one I am planning, I am going to discuss several more of the wineries I visited in Languedoc, why organic and biodynamic practices are becoming so popular in this region in particular, what that will mean for the future of French wine, and what American drinkers can expect to find in the coming years.

For another little teaser on the same idea, see my recent post (complete with video) about Olivier Pithon.

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Escargot is one of the best known dishes of France. Who hasn't tried, or at least been forced to try, those rubbery little snails bathed in garlic and butter and stuffed into either a little cassoulet dish or back into their shells? Who hasn't fantasized about being Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, shooting a shell across a fancy dining room with the force of a Howitzer?

Though escargot might appear to be the height of sophistication, or an exercise in daring dining depending on whom you ask, once people get past the idea of eating snails, they usually enjoy them as a tasty occasional appetizer without going into too much other detail.

Recently, however, while reading about the French region of Burgundy, I found out that the most prized escargot snails of all come from there, and that you rarely see them outside the fanciest of restaurants. What you normally get are just your run-of-the-mill farmed snails, called petits gris, or "little grays.&…

That's right! The final job this week isn't even filled by a human, but by a big, friendly doggy who goes snowshoeing and on hikes with hotel guests, and donates his fees to the local Humane Society. On his downtime, he's also available for cuddles and pets in the lobby.

How much do you want to go to the hotel now? To read more about Bachelor and his wag-a-docious job, check out my story at the link below.

The world's new longest flight is Qatar Airways' new route from Doha to Auckland (technically, it's the return that's longer in terms of time), which launched in February. Thanks to that news, we decided to do a story on Bloomberg about surviving those ultra-long-haul flights looking and feeling as fresh as possible.

I've had a lot of practice with these flights myself, jetting from the US to Africa, Asia and Australia, but I consulted a couple experts to get their best advice as well.